Paint Night

Rather than catch up on all of the last month, let me just start with last night. I went to my first painting party.

My Work BFF Sra K was celebrating her fiftieth birthday, and despite the fact that I don't drink wine and my painting experience for the last two decades has been limited to wall primer and theatrical sets, I decided I was going to have fun. So I went, and I did.

It started simple enough, her feeding us tons of delicious food in that way that people who show love through giving and cooking excel at, and some uncomfortable mingling on my part. It shouldn't have been awkward, what with it being mostly coworkers and other great people that my equally great friend likes, but my introvert half kicks in when the threshold of six or so people gets crossed. This party had forty-five painters-in-training all ready to celebrate Sra K and get our artistry on.

 We began with a blank canvas. Obviously. And I'm going to spare you the many metaphors I could describe about potential and fresh starts and endless possibilities. It was a blank canvas and hung in front of us was the desired finish product - Birds on a Fence.

Our artist teacher took us step by step from easy - the turquoise sky, streaks encouraged - to the impossibly difficult - birds I never even attempted. Let's just say mine ended up being renamed to simply Fence.

I sat between two other language teachers and self-proclaimed non-artists, and we enjoyed making fun of our failures and frequently asking each other "what are we doing now?" and "do you really think he has the same brushes as us?" with the occasional "wow, yours looks way better than mine."

It was all quite intense and yet completely ridiculous because no one's, and I mean no one's, looked as good as his. Even if they did all shine in their own way. Get the pun?

In the end I decided I liked it though. And it makes me think of the song I sing my boys almost every night these days. (They're over "Twinkle Twinkle" and the backwards ABC's and are back to the Bye Bye Birdie ripoff "I love you PDG, oh yes I do..." and "You Are My Sunshine"). So when I presented it to the boys, I told them it was so that whenever they look at it they know the lyrics are true. They really are my sunshines, and they'll never know how much I love them both.

I mean, aren't they cute? And big? And full of energy and light?

Miss Porter and Her Craft Ideas

On my last trip to see Mama and Papa H we finally made it out to see Miss Porter. It had been far too long (we've both had babies since our last visit) and it was time to see what she and her girls were up to. By the way, you should check out her blog that she just started. I'm sure it's going to keep filling with her creative ideas and is worth bookmarking.

Well, my boys had a blast. PDG loved cleaning her fake owls with shaving cream and picking up sticks from the previous storm for her birdfeeder. MDG got a little fresh with her youngest; I think he thought she was a giggly teddy bear. Then inside PDG found their play kitchen and story stones and sunglasses and poof balls.

While I was there Porter shared a go-to idea for long car trips - an I Spy Bottle. Both MDG and PDG liked it so I figured we'd give it a whirl for our upcoming trip to see Big Sis. I rustled through my old toys and random things lying around my parents' house to find a variety of trinkets, erasers, legos, shapes, etc that could fit in the bottle. Once back at our home PDG and I used one of MDG's naps to look through the collection. He helped tell me what each one was, then reluctantly placed it in the bottle. (I think he was hoping for a little more play time with some of them. Luckily he got to keep the few that didn't fit.) Then we poured in the rice and shook-shook-shook.  Voila!

It's now hidden until the plane ride so that it can feel brand new and exciting. Fingers crossed.  But hey, even if it fails, we had fun putting it together.  And then, once it was sealed up and put away, PDG continued to get a kick out of playing with the extra rice. Scooping and pouring and hiding coins and, naturally, spilling it everywhere. We'll be pulling that tub of now-dirty rice back out again the next time it's too rainy or stifling hot to go outside for sure.

Thanks, Porter, for the ideas and the visit.  Success and fun all around.